House of Representatives member, Hon. Dickson Tarkighir, has decried the collapse of agricultural activity in Benue State, blaming unrelenting violent attacks for rendering farmers unable to access their lands.
Addressing journalists after raising a motion in the House, Tarkighir, who represents Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency, said the state can no longer be described as Nigeria’s “food basket” due to the worsening security situation.
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“Benue is now an empty basket,” he said. “The farmers who once sustained our economy have been pushed out of their ancestral farmlands for nearly a decade because of consistent bloodshed.”
The lawmaker referenced the recent massacre in Guma Local Government Area, where gunmen stormed Yelewata and Daudu communities on June 13, killing over 200 people, including farmers and displaced persons.
According to Tarkighir, the brutality was unimaginable.
“Infants had their limbs chopped off. Pregnant women were butchered. Children were burned. What happened in those villages was inhuman,” he told reporters.
Presenting the motion during plenary, Tarkighir emphasized that thousands of people have been displaced in recent years, with the June 13 attack being one of many similar incidents to occur within and around his constituency.
The House, after adopting his motion, called on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), along with relevant ministries and agencies, to immediately intervene by delivering relief supplies and medical aid to the victims.
In a bid to prevent future tragedies, the lawmakers also urged the federal government to set up a Forward Operating Base (FOB) for the Nigerian Army in Yelwata.
